Bella Comes For Dinner
by Forgotten Cat
Summary: Bella and Charlie are invited to the Black house for dinner... takes place during "Paul Gets A Job."


_Boilerplate: The Twilight universe belongs to Stephenie Meyer – I'm just playing in it. I don't own anything except my laptop computer._

_This takes place during "Paul Gets A Job" but you don't need to read that one to follow this._

***

_Kthlathab's son swung his thick, veiny arm around and brought it crashing down on Verit's helmet, temporarily blinding him. Verit dropped to the ground, rolling towards the bulkhead wall. He pulled out his laser gun and aimed it at the weak point in Kthlathab's armor. If he could just sever the joint between the brain stem and the—_

A store brand cheese curl landed on the page Embry was reading. He ate it.

—_mass of tentacles currently holding Mercy captive. Kthlathab already had Mercy stripped down to her—_

Another cheese curl landed on the page. Embry ate that one, too.

—_bra and panties and was—_

A third cheese curl hit Embry on the face.

"Quil! I'm trying to read!" yelled Embry, turning to face his tormenter. "If you're so bored, why don't you do some homework or something. That F+ isn't going to earn itself."

"Damn, Call, did I interrupt a sex scene or something? Now I owe Jake 5 bucks." Quil kicked Jacob in the shin. "Why did you have to bet under five? You knew he was reading porn, didn't you?"

Jacob looked up from under the hood of the Rabbit, where he was trying to readjust a fraying wire, and grinned at Quil. "Just look at the cover—a chick in a metal bikini and a buff dude with a ray gun—of course there's porn in there."

"Embry's delicate eyes—he mustn't read about—boobs—" Quil covered his heart with his hands and pretended to faint, landing with a crash on the garage floor.

'The Cry From Planet Mercron' fell to the floor as Embry launched himself at Quil in an attempt to get him into a stranglehold before he managed to revive himself from his faint.

Jacob nonchalantly called double or nothing on Embry and went back to his wire casing.

But before a clear victor could be decided, the boys heard a car driving up towards the house.

"Shit! Is it that late already?" Jacob slammed down the hood of the car. "You guys have to go."

"Ooo—" Quil catcalled, "Bella's here."

"I don't see why we have to leave," said Embry, his arm still wrapped around Quil's neck in a chokehold. "We're glad Billy's home from the hospital, too, you know."

"Don't try to reason with him," said Quil, "he's in looooove." He drew out the word like it was something embarrassing: love. Clearly, no rational man would allow himself to become attached to a woman like that.

"And that is why you have to leave," Jacob said, prodding the other two boys with his feet until they stood up. "I am trying to convince Bella that life is awesome and she shouldn't run away and kill herself for some stupid undead jackass and having her see—whatever that was you guys were doing—is not going to help."

"You are in for a world of hurt, my friend," said Embry, shaking his head. He patted Jacob on the shoulder and went back to retrieve his book. "And I'm not talking about the inevitable heartbreak with—Hi, Bella."

Bella Swan, dark and solemn, was standing in the door of the garage. "Hi, Embry," she said. "And Quil."

"They were just leaving," said Jacob, pushing Quil out of the door.

"Bye, Bella!" yelled Quil, laughing.

Embry followed him, giving Bella a sad wave.

Jacob closed the door behind them. "Hey," he said, casually. "So—how much of that did you hear?"

"Just the part about 'inevitable heartbreak'," she said, softly, looking at the ground.

"Well, he wasn't talking about you," Jacob replied, looking over her head. "There's this foreign exchange student in our class—Helga. She's from Norway."

And Bella's arms were firmly around him, her head resting on his chest.

"I'm sorry, Jake," she said, sadly, "I didn't want you to feel like this."

This teasing half-friendship was enough to drive a non-impulse control challenged, non-wolf man crazy. She was so unaware of her own actions—the sly glances and shy touches that got Jacob's blood boiling. And Bella couldn't be blamed for the fact that Jacob had an unusually strong sense of smell—he really _could_ smell that she was attracted to him. And he could hear her heart beat faster when he came close.

What Jacob Black could not do is figure out a way to make Bella understand all of this—how to make her understand that she was happy when she was with him.

He wanted to runs his hands and mouth all over her body but settled for gently resting his head on top of hers for a few seconds before pushing her away.

"Is Charlie inside?" he asked, instead of devouring her.

"Yeah, we brought fish. Charlie is grilling and I'm in charge of dessert!" She smiled. "Do you want to guess or should I tell you?"

"Um—strawberry shortcake?" Jacob had already caught the faint whiff of cherries on her hands.

"What? No!" Bella giggled and went back to pull a soda from the stack of cartons shoved up against the wall. "Try again."

"Chocolate cake?" He scratched his head, pretending to guess.

"Wrong!" Bella beamed at him, pleased with herself.

"Ice cream?" Jacob couldn't resist drawing the game out.

"You're really bad at this," Bella said, laughing.

"Well, excuse me for not being able to read minds," Jacob said, grinning at her. "I'll just have to find out the old-fashioned way." The smile fell from Bella's face and Jacob realized what—or rather to whom—he had referenced.

"Yeah," she said, turning away. The weight of her life rested on Bella's narrow shoulders.

"Bells—" Jacob began, knowing he'd regret the next words out of his mouth. "Are you happy—with yourself?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" she said, suddenly furious.

"Just, I don't know, since Edward came back—you're different." Jacob waved his hands vaguely in the air, trying but unable to capture exactly how he felt the tiny spark of her life flickering out under the icy influence of Edward Cullen.

"Maybe this is the real me," she said coldly.

"Forget it," Jacob said, turning towards the door. "Let's go inside."

Charlie and Billy were in the kitchen drinking a six-pack of Rainier. They were laughing loudly at some private joke as Bella and Jacob approached.

"Hey, kids," said Charlie. "Fish won't be ready for a bit."

Jacob spied the bottle of Jack not quite hidden behind the knife block.

"Sure, sure," Jacob said, rolling his eyes. "Do you need any help?"

"Nope, we've got it covered," said Billy, who was smiling for the first time in days. The fall had upset him more than he liked to admit. Billy had long ago accepted that he would never walk again but he had never come to terms with the fact that he wasn't invincible. Bravado and machismo were two things that didn't disappear overnight—or even over a few years.

"I can help," said Bella, totally misreading the situation. Without looking at Jacob, she rolled up the sleeves of her hoodie and seemed ready to settle in.

"We'll go for a walk." Jacob grabbed the hood of Bella's sweatshirt and pulled her back towards him. "It's still nice out—we can work up an appetite."

"Like you ever need help with that," Bella scoffed. She tried to smack his hands away from her sweatshirt but he reeled her in and, with a firm hand on her back, hustled her out the kitchen door.

"What did you do that for?" she huffed, looking up angrily at him. "They'll take forever in there."

"Good," said Jacob. "Billy's been moping around ever since he came home. They can take all night, if it makes him happy."

Bella blushed and turned away. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

_You could have figured it out if you thought about somebody other than Edward_, was what Jacob thought. "It's cool," was what he said.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" asked Bella, cautiously.

"Sure, why not," said Jacob. "Let's go down to the beach."

Bella put her hand into his, almost apologetically. Jacob dropped it.

"Come on," he said, "Let's go."

The light was fading quickly, giving the trees a reddish glow. Jacob walked just a little too fast for Bella to walk comfortably. He could hear her breath coming in little puffs as she tried to match his long strides.

They were silent—lost in their own thoughts. Jacob spotted a doe and her fawn off in the distance and followed them with his eyes as they bolted back into the woods. The doe reminded him of Bella, all big eyes, not knowing if she was going to fight-or-flight on him. He sighed, loudly. Why couldn't he just give up on her? This one girl?

Jacob felt Bella stumble behind him and had already turned to catch her before his mind could process the information.

Bella looked up at him, embarrassed. "I'm sorry," she said.

"You're saying that a lot tonight," Jacob replied. He pulled her closer to him and she relaxed into his arms. "Maybe we should just stop talking for a while," he whispered into her ear.

Jacob felt Bella nod against his chest and he kissed her lightly on the top of her head. She gave a little shiver of pleasure and it took every ounce of willpower he had not to bend down and kiss her again on the lips. He heard her heartbeat pick up and untangled himself from her arms before his own body could betray him.

Bella gave a shocked little gasp but Jacob grinned and put a finger to his lips, shaking his head. She smiled shyly and reached for his hand again. This time he let her take it.

They walked down to the beach and back in silence, connected by their hands. Arms and shoulders occasionally bumped together and Jacob felt like his right side was glowing, hyper aware of Bella's every move.

It was very dark by the time they returned to the house. Stars lit up the clear sky. The leaves on the trees rustled softly in the breeze. They dawdled on the porch, not wanting to ruin the mood. Bella had but her free hand into the pocket of her sweatshirt a long ways back and she drew it out again as Billy's loud laugh echoed from inside the house.

"I think they're having a good time," she said, quietly, placing her hand on Jacob's warm chest.

"Your hand is cold," he replied, covering it with his own free hand. She brought their joined hands up to rest on his chest, too. Jacob heard Bella's pulse quicken and felt her breathing speed up. He closed his eyes and imagined the doe in the woods—would she fight-or-flight?

Jacob opened his eyes again and Bella leaned in close. She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. Jacob felt the warm pressure of her breasts against him and dropped her hands so she could more fully press against him. With one hand on the small of her back, he raised the other one up to cup her cheek and she leaned into it, sighing.

He couldn't be reading the signs wrong, could he? Jacob gave in to the moment and bent down to kiss Bella. First on the cheek and then her lips.

She stood stock-still.

Jacob stopped.

Bella took a step back, blushing furiously. "I have a boyfriend, Jake, you can't just—"

Jacob pictured the doe fleeing off into the woods.

"You can't be scared of life, Bells." Jacob opened the door to go inside. "Don't give up on me—" the sounds of Charlie and Billy singing along to Black Sabbath filled the space between them "—and don't give up on Charlie, either."

"It was cherry—cherry pie," she said. "The dessert, I mean."

"I know," said Jacob, "I could smell it on your fingers."

"Then why—?"

"Because you're cute when you're clueless."

And Jacob went inside, leaving Bella on the porch alone.


End file.
